Electrodermal activity responses for quantitative assessment of felt pain

Abstract

Accurate assessment of experienced pain is a well-known problem in the clinical practices. Therefore, a proper method for pain detection is highly desirable. Electrodermal activity (EDA) is known as a measure of the sympathetic nervous system activity, which changes during various mental stresses. As pain causes mental stress, EDA measures may reflect the felt pain. This study aims to evaluate changes in skin conductance responses (SCRs), skin potential responses (SPRs), and skin susceptance responses (SSRs) simultaneously as a result of sequences of electrical (painful) stimuli with different intensities. EDA responses as results of painful stimuli were recorded from 40 healthy volunteers. The stimuli with three different intensities were produced by using an electrical stimulator. EDA responses significantly changed (increased) with respect to the intensity of the stimuli. Both SCRs and SSRs showed linear relationship with the painful stimuli. It was found that the EDA responses, particularly SCRs (p < 0.001) and SSRs (p = 0.001) were linearly affected by the intensity of the painful stimuli. EDA responses, in particular SCRs, may be used as a useful indicator for assessment of experienced pain in clinical settings.